AUSTIN, Texas — Michigan State had five days to prepare for Duke, to come up with a strategy to end the top-seeded Blue Devils’ season.
The plan was to incessantly pressure the ball, limit Duke’s “big three” and rein in the Blue Devils every time they were a big bucket from pulling away.
And it’s safe to say the Spartans were successful, forcing 22 Duke turnovers and keeping the ball out of J.J. Redick’s hands as they topped the Blue Devils, 78-68, at the Frank Erwin Center Friday night.
The win was Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo’s first against Duke in his 10 years in East Lansing. The fifth-seeded Spartans, who lost to Duke Nov. 30 in Cameron Indoor Stadium, advanced to the regional final and beat Kentucky in double overtime Sunday.
In its eighth straight Sweet 16, Duke finished a season marked by injuries, a relatively shallow bench and lower-than-usual expectations with the No. 3 ranking in the country and an ACC Tournament title.
“I told the kids after the game it’d be a mistake for us to dwell on this game and a loss,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “The season has been absolutely beautiful and sensational. Our kids never gave up.”
Although Duke (27-6) trailed for most of the second half, defeat was far from certain for the Blue Devils until the closing minutes. Daniel Ewing stole the ball from Michigan State (25-6) and sank a three to bring the Blue Devils to within three points with 3:01 remaining. But Spartans center Paul Davis answered Ewing’s deep shot with a three-point play of his own.
“Right there, we had a real chance, and we could’ve gotten a stop that would have stretched the game out,” Ewing said. “But we didn’t, and that really put a dent in the game.”
The senior played his last collegiate game in the same building where he finished his high school career, ending up with 18 points and five steals but a team-high six turnovers.
Michigan State’s defense attacked Ewing and Duke’s other ball-handlers from the inbounds pass to the basket. The Blue Devils had trouble setting up their offense, and by the end of the first half Duke had handed over the ball 12 times.
“Our offense feeds off our defense,” forward Lee Melchionni said. “To turn the ball over like that, it just doesn’t give you a chance to play our defense and really gave them a chance to win the game.”
Alan Anderson hit Michigan State’s first three-pointer of the night two minutes into the second half, which began a 10-0 run and brought the Spartans to within one. DeMarcus Nelson turned the ball over on the subsequent possession, and Shannon Brown sank a three-pointer that gave Michigan State a lead it would never relinquish.
Redick, who was met by a Michigan State defender off of nearly every screen, said both the Spartans’ pressure and Duke’s errors contributed to his teams’ turnover woes.
“We needed to be stronger with the ball, but them putting full-court pressure on us made us speed up. When we got inside the half court, we just made some turnovers,” he said.
Despite all of Duke’s mishandlings in the opening half, the game was tied at the break, largely because Michigan State’s shots were not falling. The Spartans went 13-for-36 in the first period and 0-for-6 from behind the arc. Instead, the team concentrated its offense down low throughout the game, sinking twice as many layups as the Blue Devils and scoring 40 points in the paint.
Davis alone pulled down seven offensive rebounds as his team muscled its way to 12 second-chance points. The junior had a game-high 12 rebounds and 20 points.
Davis was pitted against Duke’s only consistent presence down low, Shelden Williams, who led the Blue Devils with 19 points and eight rebounds. Although Williams, with the help of Ewing, carried Duke for most of the first half, he only scored six points after the break when foul trouble limited his aggressiveness.
On the possession after Ewing’s late-game three-pointer that brought the score to 66-63, Williams committed his fifth foul when Davis pump-faked under the basket with just under three minutes to play. Davis sank the free throw, bulging the Spartans’ lead back up to six.
“They have a big force in the middle in Shelden Williams, but we felt like we had a big force in the middle, too,” Anderson said.
Contributions from its bench in the waning minutes kept Duke in the game until the end, as Michigan State went 8-for-8 from the line in the final 65 seconds.
Reggie Love intercepted a Spartan pass and called a timeout as he fell out of bounds. The next possession brought the Blue Devils within four points with less than two minutes on the clock. Likewise, Nelson manned the offensive glass for the Blue Devils and scored the last field goal of the game when he stretched out and tipped in a three-point attempt by Ewing.
“I’ve loved my team,” Krzyzewski said. “You either want your team to end in jubilation or crying because that emotion will tell you if you really had a great season.”
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